Well, I finished our happy little math gnomes! They are so cute and the kids have had fun playing with them. Yesterday we introduced them with a little story and then we practiced finding all the ways to make 48. We used some small smooth stones as "jewels" for counting. This, of course leads me to the story of the day! Yaya was playing so nicely with gnomes and the jewels on the table. Then little J comes up to me and has his finger in his mouth and a face like he was trying to tell me something. Hmm. I just had that mother's intuition that he may have gotten a jewel and swallowed it so I counted the marbles and we now only had 47. Oh no. I looked all over for that jewel but just couldn't find it. Then the day went on and when daddy got home from work, I told him the story. I counted the jewels again just in case I miss-counted. Well... now there were only 45! Okay I know I should have put them in a container and locked them up, but they were on the table out of reach. The one he may have swallowed probably fell on the floor, right? Well, no one really knows for sure, but the main issue here is that all three jewels have been recovered as of this morning. Yes... if you're thinking the most disguisting of options, you are correct. Now we will have to find some larger manipulatives to use for math and apparently less tasty!